4 
Earthquakes in Sicily. 993 
pened at Calabria, and in 1805, in the district of Molise. In 
this account we should notice the cavities made in the earth. 
ey were esteemed by the ancients as preservatives against 
earthquakes, not by affording an outlet to the subterranean 
vapours, a8 some have thought ; but by interrupting or dimin- 
ishing the course of the shock. 
The houses were rebuilt in the same situation, and after the 
same mode; the fissures of those which were damaged, were 
as we now observe them, only covered over on the outside 
by a slight coating of lime. These very places, and pre- 
cisely the same houses, were this year laid waste; and so 
they will always be in future, unless a more prudent and more 
reasonable method shall regulate new buildings and new re- 
pairs. 
Professor Ferrara proceeds to give a very particular ac- 
count of effects of the shock upon buildings in different situa- 
tions, which it would be hardly interesting to repeat here. 
Most of the injury, he says, was done by the second impulse 
of the shock, when the spear of the vane on the new gate 
was bent, and the water in the basin in the Botanical Garden 
was forced violently up one side. Immediately after the 
shock, he remarks, the apparent injuries were not very great ; 
but the blow was given; and the long and abundant showers 
of rain which succeeded continued to develop and increase 
the injuries, and now, though not very many buildings are 
entireiy destroyed, yet there is scarcely one which has not 
received some damage. Here follow some notices of the © 
dreadful consequences which befell many of the inhabitants, 
from the falling of the timbers and stones and walls ; of the 
vases from the piazzas into the streets and many other things 
which it is unnecessary to mention more particularly. Nine- 
teen persons were killed and twenty-five wounded; in the 
earthquake of Sept. 1, 1726, four hundred were killed and 
very many wounded. 
In the close of this chapter he remarks—do not these sad 
facts impress us with the necessity of every attention in the 
construction of new edifices? Already have the zeal of the 
governor, the facilities offered by the senate, and the concern 
of the active citizens, given a strong impulse to the repara- 
tion of the disasters. Soon will the shadow of the past ca- 
